ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the types of philosophical questions addressed in the assumptions adopted by various streams of qualitative organizational research, thus mapping out its ontological, epistemological, axiological and praxeological spheres. The main social research paradigms, such as post-positivism, social constructivism, critical inquiry, and pragmatism are examined in relation to theoretical achievements in the study of organizations. Approaches to paradigm classification, such as Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) taxonomy of sociological paradigms, are also discussed, with a view to challenging the organizational research practice of substituting first-order philosophical reflection by the conventional application of theorized paradigms as given sets of philosophical assumptions. The evaluation proposed here highlights the challenges and opportunities experienced by qualitative researchers in advancing humanist (rather than instrumentalist) knowledge of organizations in theoretically sound and practically meaningful ways. Guided by Habermas’s (1971) analysis of knowledge as related to human interests, the chapter examines empirical and analytical research approaches as related to technical interests, historical and hermeneutic knowledge directed by practical interests, and critically oriented knowledge driven by emancipatory interests. Given the long history of instrumentalist research in the organization and management fields, which has led to uncritical performativity, emphasis on the values of humanism and responsibility as intrinsic to any qualitative inquiry becomes paramount. The chapter concludes that, in embracing humanism, qualitative organizational researchers need to reflect more deeply on the philosophical underpinnings that support their empirical research questions, and on their implications for the emancipatory potential of organizational studies.
